New Podcast: Jenny Kirk & Aunt Joyce interview Tai Bailonia

Jenny Kirk and Dave from "Aunt Joyce's Ice Cream Stand" have started a podcast series posted on YouTube and Facebook.

I just finished listening to it. Jenny and Tai discuss their eating disorders among other things. Tai also seems pretty critical of the new system and the trend of American pairs teams breaking up after a season or two together. Overall, Tai is rather candid in her responses.

I must respectfully disagree with Riemann about Dave. I think he's cool. Anyway...

Thanks so much for the thread, Fabrichnova. Wonderful and candid interview. Jenny Kirk deserves lot of credit for speaking out about eating disorders and body image among skaters.

Quite amazing that Tai and Randy have never to this day really sat down and shared with each other their feelings about the Lake Placid Olympics. I completely agree with Tai that today's U.S. pairs skaters are looking for the quick fix instead of staying together to develop that "two skating as one" vibe.

It is also cool to see that respect that everyone in skating has for "Mr. Nicks."

I thought the both did a great job interviewing Tai. I believe Tim Goebel's interview will be posted next!

I live Dave's aunt Joyce blog. It's funny and most of the time he's writing the stuff I'm thinking but too afraid to say.

Seriously about Tim Goebel? That will be cool. I'm always interested in skaters who go on to a career in a very different but equally impressive field. Do I remember correctly--is Tim Goebel another "mathman"?

I just looked Tim up and can confirm that Tim majored in math for his B.A. So he's one of your tribe, Math. I didn't recall that he was the first skater to do three quad jumps IN ONE PROGRAM. And that was in 1999! Wow. It was interesting to see how many different quads he could do, as well. He didn't have the grace that someone like Yagudin had, but he sure had a sparkling list of accomplishments. He even had an Olympic bronze! Has anyone on GS met him personally? He always seems to have a low-key, under-the-radar personality.

"We welcome suggestions from past alumni. We do connect current athletes to alumni, but one of the problems is that current athletes are more interested in some of the more recent well-known skaters, like Scott Hamilton or Tara Lipinski. We try to hook skaters up; obviously if there's an eating disorder or whatever there are confidentiality issues. We have used Lisa Ervin and Tanith Belbin to help get people to the right places. We have a hotline with nutritionists to help get skaters to the right spot.

It comes down to communication. Nothing Tai said is stuff that we haven't been working on. We plan to have a meeting at Nationals with the coaches to address the pair issue. We all have to come together. We did this concerning dance twenty years ago, when it was our weakest discipline. It's about coming together and working together." - Mitch Moyer, Senior Director of Athlete High Performance